EVENTS

About That American Exceptionalism.

Two women dressed in traditional attire wait outside of city hall in Urubamba, Peru (Roxanne Cooper)

The Presidential candidates have been sounding off for almost two years now, pointing out (or in many cases manufacturing) all of America’s problems, and offering solutions they believe will make them the next President. The candidates, especially to the right of the political spectrum, extoll America as being exceptional, and they score empty points with voters by talking about how the rest of the planet looks to the United States to solve the world’s woes. It is surprising, then, to see how many of these seemingly intractable problems are being far more effectively tackled by the countries we are supposed to be “leading”. Maybe it’s time for America to start looking elsewhere for innovative solutions.

Here are 10 examples of problems being solved everywhere but in America.

Yes, I know that all these places have their own problems, and no, none of them is utopia. That’s not the point. The point is that at the very least, other places in the world are actively attempting to deal with serious problems, and trying to come up with solutions. Some of them are quite simple, like prosecuting criminals, something the U.S. is increasingly reluctant to do, unless you’re poor and some shade of brown. I’m only going to include a few here, click over for the full list.

1. Peru: free solar-powered electricity for the poor.

In 2013, in Peru, only about two-thirds of the 25 million people had access to electricity. The Peruvian government decided to do something about it, and instituted a program to provide free solar energy to the underprivileged. With the goal of providing at least 95% of Peruvians with electricity, Peru began the National Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program, installing free solar panels in impoverished communities. The program, which is expected to be completed by next year, has so far installed almost 15,000 photovoltaic systems.

2. Iceland: white-collar criminals go to jail.

In the wake of the collapse of the housing bubble in 2008, it was not only the United States that almost fell into a deep economic depression. The same criminal activity our banks engaged in, inflating the housing market and gambling away our money while saddling crippling debt on untold millions, was also occurring around the world. One country in particular, Iceland, almost imploded. It had a far different response to the crisis, however.

At the same time that the United States was bailing out our “too-big-to-fail” banks, Iceland was letting them suffer the consequences of their greed, namely bankruptcy and failure. Instead of bailing banks out, the Icelandic government bailed out homeowners by forgiving mortgages that were overvalued. While it is arguable whether a similar course of action would have been advisable in the far-larger United States, it may be more important to note that Iceland began prosecuting actual people who propagated the illegal activity. Unlike the U.S., where exactly zero bank executives have answered for their crimes, and prosecutions for white-collar crime are at a 20-year low, 26 bankers in Iceland have gone to prison for their misdeeds.

3. France: stop throwing away food.

While the United States may be the richest nation on the planet, more than 15 million children go to bed hungry. Digest this fact while also noting that 133 billion pounds of food, fully a third of the available supply, goes uneaten, eventually ending up in a landfill. France, facing a similar problem, made a very simple decision: stop throwing the food away. As of early this month, it became illegal in France for large grocery stores (4300 square feet or more) to throw out unsold food. Instead, French groceries must contract with charitable organizations, which will be responsible for collecting and redistributing the food to the needy. The law also mandates educational programs in schools to raise awareness among children about the problem of food waste.

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Comments

Food waste is tricky, because some food can’t be kept indefinitely. Probably the best thing the US could do is portion control. If restaurants allowed a person to ask for a second helping (of certain dishes) then there would be less need to put a surplus on the table to be thrown away later.

All that said, I know a restaurant in Atlanta that doesn’t waste overage, they give it to people who need food. I’m guessing it’s not a restaurant run by “social conservatives”

That’s not true, the waste problem isn’t remotely tricky. Many organizations in uStates that focus on trying like hell to feed all the starving children here can’t get enough food to distribute, and a lot of documentaries have been made about this. There’s a large consortium of chefs and restaurant owners who have committed to getting their wastage down into the 1% range. This isn’t about warehousing food, it’s about actually feeding people. Shit you can warehouse leads to crap like government cheese, which serve as doorstops and an ongoing joke in Indian Country.

There is zero reason that uStates could not follow France in dealing with this program, but even people like yourself make excuses for why this just can’t be done here. That’s bullshit, Marcus. It’s true, we can’t get jack shit done because our govt is set up to do nothing but throw up obstacles, and that needs to change. Instead, what we have is assholes maundering on about Amerikkan exceptionalism, while most of the country drains down into the sewer, leaving most folks in third world condition, with the rest frantically trying to avoid the slide, while the wealthy laugh and dance.

I didn’t think it was about warehousing food! I thought I was agreeing with you! Doing something about food distribution would mean changing a bunch of stuff and making some parts of the system bi-directional. It certainly can be done and I don’t see anywhere I was making excuses that it can’t be done here.

Simply following France in this would reduce food waste dramatically, because it would eliminate most of the food thrown out by grocery stores. Yes, they do have throw that out, but it does not mean the food is uniformly spoiled, it isn’t. A good portion of the homeless in all states line up to go through grocery store dumpsters. It’s fucking ridiculous to allow this mass amount of waste to keep happening, when there are so many people without food.

The US is busy doing things our own way, as this NYT article about privatizing emergency medical and fire services points out so well. You get all the wonderful benefits of the free market such as your ambulance service declaring bankruptcy and just shutting down one morning. Or a fire department arriving an hour after a call, far too late to save a house from a chimney fire, and yet still manages to send a $15,000 bill and put a lien on the property for payment.

It shouldn’t. Enlightened restaurant owners compost and grow much of their own produce these days. Unfortunately, just like recycling, the U.S. govt does not make it an easy matter to recycle and compost. If there was more ease of doing these things, and reduced cost and tax breaks, the waste would go down radically, but you can’t have that. I expect because it wouldn’t make the rich richer.

more than 50 other cities have previously adopted some kind of anti-camping or anti-food-sharing laws, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

Don’t know if the laws still apply, but it seems that the US is going in the opposite direction. Not only is there no sufficient safety net for people to have even basic needs met, but laws are passed that make their life even more difficult.
Fancy-sounding laws that are just vile.

L. Minnik @ 9, thanks for those links. Yes, that’s true, there are any number of laws which insist on food waste, rather than seeing it go to feed hungry people. As I said, this is not even remotely a tricky problem, it’s quite simple to deal with.

Unfortunately, just like recycling, the U.S. govt does not make it an easy matter to recycle and compost.

Here you have to prove you can compost your waste or you have to pay for biodegradable trash removal.*

*Large buildings are exempt because of the vermin issue

Also, seriously, we look at the USA as a “how not to do it”. I mean, you’re a nation where your kids aren’t allowed to have a Kinder egg and Ikea calls back furniture because parents are too stupid to follow the instructions but your kids can have guns.

blf @ 12 -- Thanks. I won’t vote Republican. To clarify, in my region the legislators that are already in office are Republicans. I was just thinking of writing my state senator and congressman to ask them if we could enact some kind of law like the one linked to in the OP.

I was just reminded that another issue is so-called “cosmetic blemishes”, i.e., something that isn’t some idealized “perfect” but, e.g., has a different shape (“misshaped”). This perhaps happens most with fresh fruits and vegetables. By-and-large, people (myself included) rarely buy stuff with significant blemishes, albeit lessor / less-obvious blemishes can be a different story (and there are a handful of shops which do deal in/with such foodstuffs). What I do not know is the degree to which these foodstuffs are used in situations where it simply doesn’t matter, e.g., prepared / prepackaged dishes, or by professionals (e.g., restaurant chefs): A chopped-up healthy but misshaped tomato still tastes & smells like, and when chopped-up, looks like, a tomato.

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Bi-directional shipping systems (mentioned in other comments) are also useful for returning packaging (e.g.) for reuse / recycling. However, you would not want to mix package-return with food-return for reasons of food safety. (I suppose completely sealed foods might be Ok?)

lepidoptera@18, Unfortunately, other people are voting / have voted thug, so we’re not yet in a position letters / petitions will do anything other than get you shot by the policegoons. “Don’t vote republican” applies to everyone…

Another idea:
-as *50* countries have already done-the US could ban corporal punishment of children,
or at the very least ban it in schools (19 US states haven’t.)
Or become party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child as the *196* other countries have.
…
Or just focus on Kinder eggs.

Perhaps the problem is that much of what American food processors call “food” isn’t actually compostable and needs to be disposed of in deep underground bunkers. Won’t someone think of the poor ratties?

The thought of a law that bans feeding needy people disgusts me. Marcus, we have charities here that specialise in sourcing close-dated food (NOT post-dated) and other surplus supplies and then getting it to other charities that can use it expeditiously. These grew from the efforts of activists dumpster diving at supermarkets and showing TV crews just how much perfectly good food was going to waste. It actually benefits the businesses as well since it reduces dumping fees. It’s all about having a national sense of shame and decency that hasn’t atrophied yet.